


to ride

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [287]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Blood, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Identity Issues, Reincarnation, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5489318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	to ride

**Author's Note:**

> Title: to ride  
> Disclaimer: not my characters  
> Warnings: canon compliant AU (I assume); references to violence/death  
> Pairings: canon  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 640  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: Leverage, ensemble, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Job

They've existed since the beginning, of course, though their forms varied. There were entire ages where they never met up, just went about their mortal lives from birth until death, only to start the cycle over. Over and over and over again, until the call was sounded. For entire ages, the call was not sounded. 

Did they know? Not entirely. 

Had they met up in any of those lives, perhaps they might've. 

They were not meant to meet up this life, either. Oops. 

.

Death wakes first, of course. He (for he is a he, this life) stretches inside his mortal shell until the body awakens, too, on a cot inside a mortal hospital, and the mortal does not fight as he is guided by mortal police officers to a chair in room that contains— 

_Oh, how lovely_ , Death thinks, looking at his sibling. _How interesting_. 

Death awakens a mere blink before any of the others, but it is years in time the way mortals count it. 

.

Famine is next, of course. His (for he is a he, this life) mortal shell is in the midst of planning, hungering for alcohol, hungering for touch, hungering for vengeance and pain and blood, oceans of it—and Famine awakens. The mortal shell barely pauses, but Famine notices that only one of the team seems to catch it, and Famine watches Eliot Spencer smile, for a bare instant, before Eliot turns to poke Hardison into paying attention. 

_Which are you?_ Famine wonders, settling down to listen to the shell plan and plot. 

.

The third is Pestilence, the youngest by far (though still, of course, older than any mortal could ever comprehend), and he (for he is a he, this life) stirs inside his shell as the shell tears through database after database downloading what is needed and infesting the rest with a virus so clever none of the mortals will even notice for weeks. “Parker, babe,” the mortal shell says, “get out of there, get goin’, damnit, girl,” and Pestilence listens as Parker shouts back, “Trying!” 

“Eliot, can you get to her?” the shell asks, and when _Eliot_ replies, “On the way, Hardison,” Pestilence shivers in delight because he knows that voice, has known it since he first was born, back in the beginning of it all. 

.

War awakens fourth, in a mortal shell that has wandered the world inciting riots and breaking hearts. She (for she is a she, this life) has rarely noticed and cared less at the destruction in her wake, and now, peering out of the shell’s eyes, War grins for she is in the midst of a game that is _so_ dangerous, and across the room, War sees the mortal shell’s teammate, and there is a twist of his lips that she knows. 

.

The last is Conquest. 

She (for she is a she, this life) awakens while the mortal shell is falling eighteen floors, Hardison and Sophie yelling in her ears, Nate trying desperately to save the job, and then Eliot says simply, “It’s time.” 

Everything goes quiet and Conquest opens her eyes to see the ground coming ever closer. She twists midair, in a way the shell could’ve done anyway, but lands on her feet without injury, which the shell could not have. 

“Are we riding?” she asks, aching to swoop over a battered nation and settle into the blood-soaked earth. 

“Not yet,” the eldest of them all says. “But now that we’re all here, we can plan a bit.” 

Conquest smiles, settling back into the corner of the shell’s mind. Parker won’t even wonder how she’d landed and the job continues. 

.

Sophie and Nate retire, though of course they still liberate things they want; Hardison, Parker, and Eliot still work, providing leverage for those who need it. 

Maybe they won’t ride in this life, or maybe they will.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fic DVD Commentaries](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6795196) by [tigriswolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf)




End file.
